


scoring points on and off the field

by lover_of_many_things



Category: Booksmart (2019)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Soccer AU, they're still in highschool, this is entirely self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 14:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19770373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_many_things/pseuds/lover_of_many_things
Summary: Hope is the captain of the soccer team. Amy is her nerdy and activist obsessed self. She and Amy just kind of fall into each other--literally.A small cute Amy x Hope soccer au.





	scoring points on and off the field

**Author's Note:**

> This is completely self indulgent because I wanted a cute soccer AU so I decided I'd have to write one. I'm just still on that high from the USWNT winning and needed an outlet. 
> 
> I might add little drabbles and snapshots to this to fill in some blanks if I ever feel like it, who knows. 
> 
> Now I should get back to writing other things. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Hope does lunges down the sideline of the field with the rest of her teammates, warming up before the game. Usually they’d play on the main turf field with the bleachers, but the football team also has a game tonight so their game was moved to one of the support grass fields. Admittedly Hope isn’t too disappointed by this mainly because sliding on turf hurts like a bitch and she’s spent enough of her high school career with turf burn. The only downside is they probably wouldn’t have too many people supporting them, even with it being a home game, since people always seemed to pick football over soccer. It’s not even like the school football team is good either, they have only made it into the playoffs once in Hope’s four years, while the soccer team has made it into the playoffs every year, and last year they were even state runners up. 

Hope adjusts the captain band around her arm pulling it up and letting it slap back against her arm as she leads the team in their warm-up laps, sprints, and stretches. She knows she’s not the most popular person on the team since she can be a bit stand-offish and sometimes a little too focused on the sport, but it’s what makes her a good captain. As long as the team does well, she doesn’t really care if she’s no one’s favorite person. 

They’re on the field doing practice shots when the other team arrives and starts warming up. They’re playing their rivals today, so Hope is a bit nervous--not that she shows it at all. She has to be completely confident in the team as captain. They’ve already played against each other once this season and while they did win, it was only off of a penalty kick. They’re a strong team not to be taken lightly and Hope reminds her team of that in the huddle before the coin toss. She quickly changes from her warm-ups into her jersey, smoothing out the small seventeen on the front.

She jogs out to center field to participate in the coin toss and surveys the crowd as she does. She sees her parents and her teammates’ parents in their usual group. She looks down the sideline to where it’s mostly the opposition sitting and does a double take at a familiar face in the crowd. There, standing in the back of the crowd is Amy Antsler, nerd extraordinaire, standing next to her best friend and class president, Molly Davidson. Hope has English with the duo, though she never interacts with them, and she might have the tiniest crush on Amy. Really you can’t blame her, Amy is cute and she is but a mere lesbian. Hope really is just shocked since she’s never seen Amy at one of their games before, or at any after school activity that she isn’t a part of. 

The captain of the other team calls tails on the toss and gets it wrong, so Hope chooses to start with the ball while the other team picks the side. Hope jogs back to her team huddle where her coach is talking and glances at Amy again. Amy is beet red and looking away from the bench, slapping Molly’s shoulder as the other girl laughs. Hope looks to where Amy was looking and sees Ryan—one of the defenders—has just changed into her jersey. Hope rolls her eyes and stamps down those small tendrils of jealousy to focus on the game. 

“Okay, we all know the deal, just keep focused, calm, and communicate. We’ve beaten them before, we can do it again.” Hope says as the ref calls them onto the field. Hope jogs onto the field with the rest of her teammates and takes her position at center mid. 

The ref blows the whistle and the game kicks off with the Crockets in possession of the ball. Being center mid, Hope is all over the field throughout the entire game helping the strikers connect the ball with the back of the net and going to help the defense to make sure the other team doesn’t score. 

As teams they are pretty evenly matched and seem to be keeping each other at bay. Whenever they have a run with the ball the other team’s defense protects and gets the ball back, and vice versa. 

After 45 minutes the score is still 0-0, half time is called, and Hope is in need of a rest. She jogs over the bench and grabs her water bottle, squirting the water into her mouth. She brings her jersey up to wipe the sweat away from her face, and when she drops it back down she finds Amy’s eyes on her with her jaw slightly slack. Amy quickly moves her gaze to continue surveying the crowd of players, but Hope sees her cheeks blush. _ Interesting. _ Hope tilts her head but then joins the huddle of her teammates, continuing get to drink water and stretching to stay warm.

Coach tells them they need to be more aggressive and capitalize on opportunities. Hope can tell a lot of the girls are exhausted; she’s getting there too. There will definitely be subs in the second half but Hope doesn’t hedge her bets in being subbed out unless she’s injured—not that she wants to be. She’s learned to make the most of half-time since that’s one of the only breaks she usually gets in 90 minutes. 

Soon enough, half time is over and they’re walking back out to the switched sides. Hope glances to the crowd and sees the Amy and Molly have made their way to stand along the sideline to watch instead of at the back of the crowd. She gives a small wave of acknowledgement to her parents who cheer loudly as soon as she steps back onto the field. The whistle blows and the game is right back on. They take their coach’s direction and get more aggressive, keeping possession of the ball and making runs whenever possible, and it seems like they’re wearing the rivals down.

Hope is running down the sideline, making herself open for Samantha who currently has possession of the ball. Samantha must see Hope making her run and chips the ball over to her but it’s slightly too high. Hope runs directly toward the sideline in a last ditch effort and jumps, heading the ball and keeping it in, hopefully getting it to one of the strikers.

Hope isn’t too sure where the ball goes though since she has too much momentum and collides with someone on the sideline, taking them both down. Hope pauses for a moment, taking stock of everything, making sure she’s not hurt—and she’s not, beyond some probable bruising. Then Hope focuses on the body below her and realizes she is sprawled on top of a wide-eyed Amy. 

“Sorry Amy,” Hope says knowing she should get to her feet since play definitely did not stop. Hope sees Amy gulp and her eyes flick down to Hope’s lips; she blames that action for what comes out of her mouth next. “We should try this again sometime under different circumstances.” She barely hears the beginning of Amy fumbling for words before she is up on her feet and back on the field, waving away her coach’s concern. 

Her team still has possession—somehow—but they are back in their own half. Hope jogs back enough to be back where the play is and tries to get open. Finally, she gets some space to get open and Amanda passes her the ball. She quick turns, throwing off the player marking her and makes a run back down the field. She feels a defender bearing down on her and glances up, seeing Meghan, and crosses the ball up to her. 

Hope continues running toward the box, and watches as Meghan takes a few steps, setting herself up, and then takes the shot. The ball rockets into the top right corner of the net past the other team’s goalie and Hope jumps into the air, pumping her first. “Let’s go!!” She runs over, clapping Meghan on the shoulder. “Nice shot.” Others come to congratulate Meghan quickly before returning to their spots, and Hope jogs down the field. She spares a glance at Amy to see the girl standing there, watching her, with a very confused look on her face. Hope just barely hides a smirk.

The game isn’t over yet though, so Hope refocuses. The other team kicks off and makes their way down the Crockets’ side of the field. Hope quickly runs in and makes a mostly clean tackle—enough that it won’t be called—and clears the ball away. Number 11 on the other team throws the ball in and it passes player to player until a shot is taken. Luckily, it goes wide and Courtney, the goalie, gets a goal kick. 

The clock continues to count down as Courtney kicks the ball down the field and back into play, it landing at the other striker, Naomi’s, feet. Hope follows them up the field, catching up with her long stride, and Naomi sends the ball back to her once she no longer has any space. Hope moves over to the other side of the field a bit, looking for someone who is open, when her feet are taken out from under her.

She falls into a heap and the wind is knocked out of her. She barely registers the ref blowing the whistle and giving a yellow card to the player on the other team for that dirty tackle—really, she didn’t even make contact with the ball. Hope gasps for air, stretching her arms above her head. No wait, her coach is pulling her arms above her head while squatting over her and telling her to take deep breaths. 

After a moment, she can finally breathe again normally, but then she registers the pain in her knee. She curls in on herself and pushes her face into the side of her arm. She hears her coach call for someone, and then the school trainer is beside her asking some questions. The trainer holds the leg that she didn’t realize she had moved to hold with one hand and stretches it out slowly.

“Hope, does this hurt?” Hope shakes her head, starting to breathe through the pain.

“No--no more than before.”

“Okay, well that’s good. Did you hear anything snap?” 

“No.” Hope feels the trainer poke, prod, and rub around her knee.

“Good. You might’ve just hyperextended it in the fall. Do you wanna see how it feels walking?” Hope nods and sits up. She hears everyone clap as soon as she does, and then she gets up, testing her weight on her left leg. It stings a little, but it’s manageable at least for the last five minutes of this game. She pulls her leg behind her in a quad stretch and nods at the trainer. 

“I’m good.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” The trainer eyes her up and down before nodding.

“Okay, but you come to me as soon as this game is over to ice up.” 

“Absolutely.” In no way would Hope argue about that, she knows she will definitely need ice and probably some Advil later. But that’s later, this is now. Hope has a foul kick to make. The trainer walks off the field and Meghan brings the ball over.

“You good?” She asks as she sets the ball down where the ref indicates. 

“Good enough.” Hope adjusts the placement and Meghan jogs back towards her teammates. Hope backs up, shaking her leg out and looks at everyone’s positioning. A little clumped up, but Hope can still send it in. 

The ref blows the whistle indicating the start of play and Hope sends the ball up to Meghan at the near end of the field. She jogs into the play, making sure her knee really is okay enough to finish up this game—it is—before running up the middle. Meghan tries to cross it into the box, but the shot is body blocked. Luckily, it goes out on the goal line, so they get a corner kick.

Meghan takes the kick, she’s always been pretty good at corners. She sends the ball in, and Hope is just waiting in the line. She runs forward and jumps, making just enough contact with the ball to deflect it into the upper left corner of the net. As soon as she sees the ball hit the back of the net she runs toward the corner, jumping up and throwing her fist out in celebration. 

Her teammates come and congratulate her as they all jog back to set up at mid field. Hope has never been happier to be as tall as she is; had she been any shorter she definitely would’ve missed it.

It seems like it’s right after play starts again that the ref says there’s four minutes of stoppage time. The other team has possession and makes their way once again into their half of the field. Thankfully, the defense is on their game and Ryan clears a could-be dangerous ball. It’s thrown in, but cleared once again. 

This time the throw in is handled with a heavy touch and Ryan is able to send the ball up the field to Naomi. Naomi makes a run with it but heads to the corner, happy to let time run out. One of the other team’s defenders manages to kick the ball out but it’s a throw in. 

Naomi goes to take it, and as soon as the ball is put into play the whistle blows—game over. Hope smiles and heads to mid field for post-game handshakes. She lines up with the other players and shakes hands with the other team, a “good game” on her lips with each one. 

Once that is over she walks back over to the bench, or rather limps slightly, and drinks her water. She sits down on the bench with the rest of her teammates and Coach goes over the game’s goods and bads. Coach manages to keep the talk to five minutes and then congratulated them on the win and sends them on their way. 

Hope lumps over to the trainer’s golf cart when she’s already waiting with a large ice bag. She waves away her parents’ worried looks and hops onto the back of the golf cart. The trainer, Sherry, places the ice bag on Hope’s knee and then wraps it in plastic wrap. “How’s it feel?”

“It hurts, but it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.” Hope says, fiddling with her shinguard. 

“Alright, but that doesn’t mean you don’t ice this the next couple of days. 20 minutes on—“

“20 minutes off. I know the drill.”

“Alright. You want a ride back to the locker room?” Hope is already shaking her head and getting off the cart.

“I’ll be fine.” She awkwardly walks back to the bench, not really able to bend her leg all too well with the big bag of ice on it. 

“Hope, we’ll see you at home, okay?” Her dad calls out as she makes her way back to the bench and she throws her parents a thumbs up in answer. Her parents wave goodbye before heading to the parking lot, and Hope sits back down on the bench, collecting her things. Most of her teammates are already on the walk back to the locker room, only a few are still at the bench and they’re finishing up. 

Hope takes another swig of water and then closes her eyes, squirting herself in the face with some. She runs her hand down her face, wiping it off, and then bends over, pulling her socks down to her cleat and undoing the top of her shinguards on both legs. The sensation of relief at action is instant and Hope lets out a deep breath. That’s when she notices the shadow of a person stopped in front of her. 

Hope sits upright and finds Amy standing in front of her, fidgeting and shuffling slightly. Hope does some quick glances around to find that the rest of her teammates have packed up to head inside and the other spectators have left or have gone to join the football game. “Hey?” Hope doesn’t mean for it to, but it comes out as a question. 

“Hey, um, that looked like a really rough tumble.” Amy glances down at Hope’s knee sealed in ice and Hope shrugs. 

“I guess. It hurt, but it could’ve been way worse.” Amy nods and hums at the answer. Hope nods at Amy’s nodding. All in all, it’s extremely awkward. That is, until Amy blurts out a question.

“What did you mean?” Hope tilts her head. Amy and Hope have never really talked long enough for her to have anything to mean to Amy.

“Huh?”

“You know...when you ran into me on the sideline. You said something. What did you mean by it?” That jogs Hope’s memory just fine. Now that the haze of adrenaline has worn off, Hope curses what it does to her. She didn’t think Amy would ever confront her about what she said flirtingly while sprawled on top of her.

“Oh. Um...well, speaking of that. Are you okay? I’m kind of a giant.”

“I’m fine, you might be tall, but you’re lean and light as a feather. It was like colliding with a gazelle...and don’t avoid the question.” Hope quirks an eyebrow and smirks, both at Amy’s description of her and also with calling her out.

“What do you think I meant by it?” Amy flushes and crosses her arms.

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking!” Hope finishes putting her things together and lifts her bag into her back. She stands and leans down to speak into Amy’s ear.

“By the state of you blush, I think you know exactly what I meant by it.” Hope pulls back and smiles, starting her walk back to the locker room. 

“Aaaaahhh….” she hears Amy say from behind her and she worries for a moment that she’s broken the poor nerd. She’s only walked maybe fifteen feet before she hears the sound of running on grass and then Amy is walking beside her. “Wait. Earlier you called me by my name, I didn’t think you even knew who I was.”

“We’ve been in classes together since freshman year, how could I not know who you are? I thought you were smarter than this, nerd.”

“Well it’s just we’ve never talked or anything…” Hope glances at Amy who is rubbing her hands together and looking at the ground. Hope chuckles.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you and Molly don’t really leave any space for anyone else. Plus I didn’t know you were even interested in talking to me since I’m not a certain defender.” Amy sputters for a moment, pausing in her walking.

“That is—I don’t even know what—shut up.” Hope laughs and slows as they reach the locker room, leaning against the door to look at Amy.

“Y’know, if you ever decide that—I don’t know—midfield is suddenly more interesting to you than defense...my offer still stands.” Hope winks at Amy and pushes the door open with her back. “See ya around, nerd.”

Hope only sees Amy’s mouth drop open in shock before the locker room door is between them. Hope quickly gathers her things and changes, keeping her shorts on though because she doesn’t feel like maneuvering pants over the ice packs. She collects all her bags and heads out to her car, putting everything in the back. She drives home, ready to spend the rest of the night relaxing and resting her knee.

* * *

The next morning, Hope shuffles through her locker, taking out the right books that she needs for Physics, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. Her knee feels a little sore, but overall fine despite the pretty bad bruising, though she’s hiding all of that bruising under a pair of jeans, at least until practice. 

She shuts her locker and makes her way down the hall to class. About halfway there, she feels like someone is staring at her. She looks around her and glances over her shoulder until she makes eye contact with Amy who is looking at her in a way that Hope can’t quite determine. Her eyes widen when she realizes she’s been caught, but Hope just raises an eyebrow at her and walks into her class.

The rest of the day passes similarly with Hope going about her day as usual, but she notices Amy often looking at her in confusion or maybe contemplation. It’s interesting to say the least, and not at all unwelcome.

Finally, the period that Hope has been most anticipating comes along, and Hope walks into Ms. Fine’s English class. Amy and Molly are already seated front and center—as usual—and Hope walks past them to get to her usual seat, one over and back from Amy. She might not be the most enthusiastic about school, but Hope knows to get into most D1 schools you have to be a good student as well as player.

She sees Molly give Amy a weird look as she walks by. She takes her seat and pulls the current book she’s reading out onto her desk. From the corner of her eye she sees Molly slap Amy’s arm as Ryan walks into the room.

“Hey Ryan!” Molly calls out, gaining the other girl’s attention and making her walk over. Hope pretends to read her book but watches from the corner of her eye.

“Hey Molly, Amy, ‘sup?”

“We went to the game yesterday. You did great! Right, Amy?” Molly really isn’t the queen of subtlety and honestly neither is Amy, so Hope is doubly intrigued as to how this will go.

“Oh...Yeah! You really, um, protected the goal well.” Hope thinks she sees Amy look over to her quickly from the corner of her eye but she’s pretending not to watch too hard to be sure. 

“Thanks! And thanks for coming out, dude. I’d love to see you at more games. I know the whole team really appreciates the support.” Ryan smiles and then heads to her seat towards the back of the room as the bell rings. 

Hope glances up to catch Amy with her head in her hands groaning. She hears Molly mutter a “What was  _ that? _ ” to Amy before Ms. Fine starts class. 

Class passes mostly uneventfully until Hope gets an idea towards the end of class. She quietly tears a piece of paper out of her notebook and writes her phone number on it with the message  _ In case you ever change your mind about positions _ . She folds the piece of paper up nicely and waits for the bell to ring. 

She packs up extremely slowly considering she only has a single notebook and book on her desk. She waits for Molly and Amy to head out of the classroom before leaving. She catches them a few doors down and tugs on Amy’s jacket sleeve to get her attention.

She turns, a questioning look on her face, which then morphs to surprise when she sees who it is. “Hey nerd, I think you dropped this while you were packing up.” She sees Molly’s eyes narrow into a glare but she just holds the folded piece of paper out to Amy.

“Oh! Um...no I don’t think that’s mine.”

“Trust me. It is.” She continues to hold the paper out until Amy tentatively lifts a hand and takes it from Hope. “See ya.” As soon as Amy takes it, Hope turns on her heel and heads to her last class of the day before practice.

Her phone remains quiet for the whole of last period but Hope isn’t discouraged. She knows this might be a long shot, but she feels like there’s something there. She heads to the locker rooms after the final bell rings and quickly changes into her practice gear. She grimaces as she glances at the massive bruise on her knee, but the trainer gives her the okay so she’s good to practice.

There are no other games today, so they’re able to practice on the large turf field. Hope leads the team in warmups when they get out onto the field, which on practice days includes four laps around the track enclosing the turf field. Hope can do a mile run in her sleep, and as weird as it might be she actually enjoys them. They give her time to look inward and think. 

She’s so caught up in her own thoughts that she doesn’t even notice Amy sitting in the bleachers, presumably doing homework, until the start of the fourth lap. That’s definitely a development. Sure, people have watched them practice before or even come just to do homework on the bleachers on a nice day, but never Amy. The team finishes out the last lap and they walk over to Coach to find out what is on the schedule for practice today. 

Since they had a pretty tough game yesterday, practice today is pretty light. No heavy cardio and no suicides across the football field. Mostly they just go over formations, drills, and practice shooting. All in all, it actually is a pretty lax practice.

By the time they’re wrapping up at 5:30, Hope is a good level of tired but not exhausted. She glances up to the stands and Amy is still there, shifting her focus between reading a textbook and writing something down in a notebook. Hope drinks water as she listens to Coach wrap up the practice and tell them to get ready for the next game. 

As they do at the end of every practice, they all put their hands in and say “Crockets!” on three. After, they separate again and head to their own things. Hope takes off her shinguards and switches over from her cleats to her slip ons. She packs all of her things up and tosses her bag over her shoulders.

She looks up in the stands and feels a little disappointed when she doesn’t see Amy sitting there anymore. That disappoint changes to something else when she sees Amy talking to Ryan at the fence. Well, it was a long shot—or at least, that’s what Hope tells herself in order to stamp down on the sadness she feels creeping up. She drinks more water as she walks past Amy and Ryan and off the field. She’s looking forward to icing her knee again, even if it’s just something to do instead of being on the field right now.

She’s a quarter of the way to the locker room when she hears someone call her name and she stops—mostly due to surprise. “Hope! Wait up!” She turns to see Amy lightly jogging toward her. She raises an eyebrow and waits until Amy’s within talking distance to speak.

“Yeah?” Amy stops a couple feet away from her and suddenly looks shy, reaching her hand in her pocket. Hope watches the motion and sees Amy pull out the slip of paper that she had given to Amy earlier. God, Hope really doesn’t want to get turned down face to face; she’d honestly rather be ghosted. 

“I just—what is this?” Hope knows she must make some kind of face at the question because Amy looks down at the ground once they make eye contact. Hope lets out a breath and looks at the sky. She rubs the back of her neck with her hand.

“Geez, do you actually need me to spell it out for you, nerd? That’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Yeah, actually...you’re, um, kind of confusing.” Any scratches her head and Hope almost groans at how adorable she looks. Hope also sees her teammates starting to walk off the field and this isn’t really a conversation she wants to have with them nearby. 

“Fine. Just...walk with me, okay?” Hope starts walking and Amy nods, walking beside her. After a few moments Hope takes another deep breath and glances to her side at Amy. “Okay. I think you’re really cute and I’d like to go out sometime. That,” she motions to the paper with her number written on it, “is my number. In case you’re interested.”

“Oh.” Hope sees Amy’s cheeks turn red and she can almost see the gears in her head whirring at the new information. “Aaahhh. Um...I think I am. Interested that is.”

Hope blinks in surprise. “Oh,” she smiles, “cool.”

“Yeah,” Amy says, almost to herself in confirmation, “so I’ll, um, I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.” Amy nods and walks off toward the parking lot for a few steps before pausing, walking back, and lifting up on her toes to kiss Hope on her cheek towards the corner of her mouth. Amy nods again to herself and then walks off, leaving Hope stunned for a few seconds. She definitely did not expect that. 

Hope smiles all the way into the locker room and even when she’s getting ice wrapped onto her knee. She even has a smile, though it is a small one, all throughout the traffic on her drive home. 

When she gets home her phone vibrates with a message from an unknown number. 

_ hi :) _ Immediately followed by,  _ oh, sorry. This is Amy. Amy Antsler…from English.  _

_ Hey nerd.  _ Hope sends back and saves the number. And if she’s still smiling a little bit by the time she goes to bed, then what about it?

* * *

Hope and Amy have been texting pretty frequently for the past couple of weeks. Pretty much every chance Hope gets she’s texting Amy about something or other, and Hope is just really enjoying all of their conversations. One of Hope’s favorite pastimes has rapidly become flustering Amy. It’s fun, easy, and Amy looks adorable when she’s flustered. Hope’s realized that she really likes Amy, and while that does scare her a little bit, it’s also pretty exhilarating. 

Amy has come to all of their games as well, dragging along a minimally reluctant Molly to cheer on the team (and her, Hope thinks). Amy reciprocates Hope’s flirting and whenever they do talk in person in the halls or after a game, Hope just feels something there. Something that she really wants to see where it goes. Hope also notices that Ryan is no longer the subject of Amy’s glances and knows that has to mean something at the very least.

They have another game tomorrow, it’s one of the last of the regular season. It’s already looking like they’ll easily make play offs, but every game counts so they will still play as seriously as they always do. As much as Hope is focused on the game, there is a part of her that remains distracted. Specifically by a certain small red-head. Hope has spent the last week thinking about asking Amy out officially. Finally after putting it off for days, she figures there’s no better time than the present, especially if it will clear her mind for the game tomorrow. She doesn’t want anything to affect her performance poorly this close to the playoffs. 

_ Hey, do u wanna go out tomorrow?  _ There, short, sweet, and to the point. Hope places her phone down as she waits for a response, not wanting to just look at the ‘typing’ bubble. Her phone vibrates and she picks it up again looking at the message. 

_ I’m already going out somewhere tomorrow.  _ Hope feels her heart sink in disappointment. 

_ Oh. _

_ Yeah, I’m going to your game.  _ Hope stares at the message, her heart returning to its place faster than fireworks being set off. God, she’s in trouble with this girl. She steels herself and makes her fingers type out words. 

_ Oh...well, I kinda meant after the game. Just the two of us. Like a date.  _ This time Hope watches as the bubble pops up and disappears many times; she must like torturing herself. Finally, not being able to take it and worrying about rejection she amends her statement slightly.  _ Only if you want to though. It’s whatever.  _ She rolls her eyes at herself and almost facepalms at how lame she sounds. Her phone vibrates almost immediately after her messages. 

_ NO! _

_ No! I want to!  _

_ Just so we’re clear though. A date like a girlfriend date?  _ Hope smiles a bit at the messages. 

_ Yeah. If you want to be my girlfriend that is.  _

_ I do.  _

_ Cool. _

_ Cool. _

_ Nerd ;) _

_ rude.  _ Hope laughs at Amy’s reply, but then bites her lip as she has a sudden thought. She types out her question and hits send before she can second guess herself. 

_ Do you wanna wear my jersey to tomorrow’s game? _

* * *

Hope is warming up along the sidelines with the rest of her team when she feels a whack on her shoulder. She turns to look at the offender—Meghan—and quirks an eyebrow in question.

“No way. You and Amy? How’d that happen?” Meghan nods over to the bleachers and Hope follows her motion to see Amy sitting next to Molly wearing her away jersey. It fills Hope with an unexpected warmth and she stamps down on the urge to smile stupidly in front of the rest of her teammates. Hope just shrugs instead, continuing her stretches. 

“It just kinda happened.” Meghan levels her with a look, before smiling and clapping her on the shoulder. 

“Well, I’m happy for you.” Hope rolls her eyes and mumbles a thanks while Meghan laughs. 

They win the game 4-1 and Hope actually scores in the second half, sinking the ball into the back of the net with her right foot. Hope is still on a bit of an adrenaline rush from scoring and winning even by the time the after game huddle is over and people are clearing out of the stands. 

She spots Amy climbing down the bleachers and she jogs over to the fence to meet her. 

“Hey, you were awesome out there! That goal was—“ As soon as Amy is close enough, Hope bends down and kisses Amy, cradling Amy’s face in her hands. After a few seconds she pulls away and drops her hands to rest on the fence. She ignores the whistles and some excited cheers from her teammates.

“Hi.” She smiles and Amy still looks a bit surprised.

“Hey,” Amy says again, a bit breathless. 

“You already said that.” Amy licks her lips and then her eyes flicker back to Hope’s lips. 

“It deserves being said twice...I’ll, um, I’ll wait for you in the parking lot.” Hope nods her assent.

“Okay.” Amy turns to leave, but immediately turns back around and pulls Hope in for another kiss by the back of her neck. Amy pulls back a few moments later and nods.

“Okay, now I’ll go wait for you in the parking lot.” Amy turns and walks off toward the parking lot and Hope smiles briefly before masking her expression. She goes back to the bench and packs her things away. 

Meghan bumps into her shoulder to shoulder. “You’re cute together.” Hope rolls her eyes but mumbles out a thanks which makes Meghan laugh.

They walk to the locker room with the rest of their team, and then Hope takes her  _ girlfriend _ out on a date.

* * *

Hope thinks the only thing better than being a state champion is hopping the fence after the game to kiss her girlfriend in celebration. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> feel free to talk to me on tumblr at lover-of-many-things.tumblr.com


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